Tim Peake and space station crew mates return to Earth

Live coverage of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli lander arriving at Mars. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

Humankind’s largest emissary to Mars in a generation is set for blastoff in Monday, when Europe and Russia will dispatch a mission to unravel the mystery of Martian methane.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is now less than a month from perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun occurring on 13 August. ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft captured this view of enhanced activity from the comet’s twin-lobed nucleus on 7 July.